#sequence 7 of brotherhood

[sulfies]

So Ezio teached himself how to speak French fluently enough just to get some pussy back in Firenze??!

[thebleedingeffect]

You guys are so fucking lucky I haven't spammed the dash with assassin's creed cause I'm not wanting to spoil myself by going through the tag... for now, for now you guys are safe

[mynightingalecomplex]

Them: Assassin’s Creed isn’t good anymore. 

Me, who’s only ever played Assassin’s Creed for the whump

Assassin’s Creed 2: Part 16 - Kill the Checco Orsi Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: Sequence 1 Missions 7 & 8 Assassin’s Creed Black Flag: Sequence 10 Mission 3  Assassin’s Creed Revelations: Sequence 1 Missions 4 & 5 and Sequence 2 Mission 1

[s-lycopersicum]

"i have some time" do you have PRIME NUMBERS time??? if not, you can do every 5th one

Emily, you are single-handedly increasing the hit count on the OEIS page for the prime numbers sequence!

2. Do you drink tea or coffee? How do you take it?

Coffee, every day! I have a moka pot I got a few years ago, apparently it makes six cups, but I drink a whole volume of it every morning. I prefer a dark roast, and take it with just a bit of sugar.

3. What was the last song you listened to? 

The last one was BROKEN GAMES - FZMZ! I like that it reminds me of moments in the Shangri-la Frontier opening.

5. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?

Not since I was a kid. Nowadays, I think I would be scared of harming it too much during sleep.

7. What’s your ideal number of blankets to sleep with?

One, but it has to be the right fabric! I don't like those light, silky ones, even though I live where the nights can be scalding hot.

11. What color are your eyes?

Normally, a dark brown, but they get a shinier orange in the sunlight.

13. Fears?

Oh, several. A bit too real though.

17. Want any piercings? Where?

Haven't... really.. thought about it. I guess they never interested me enough, not sure which kind I would like.

19. Do you have a best friend? How long have you been friends?

How do I tell which one is a best one? Or is it the best one?

23. Do you believe in aliens?

Small unicellular, perhaps multicellular life in this system. Definitely, 100%, they are out there. Larger "intelligent" lifeforms like humans, possibly with advanced technology? Don't think so.

29. Does it take you a long time to make decisions?

Surely, that depends on the decision. I picked between apartments where I would live in for 4 (turned into 6) years in 30 seconds. It took me a decade to pick (be given) a name in this website.

31. What are you looking forward to in the distant future?

There are some things I want to try once I'm living on my own again. The switch from living alone to living with family highlighted some aspects of solo life I didn't really appreciate before.

37. Do you prefer dogs or cats?

Nyanko.

41. What’s your favorite cartoon?

I'm going to skip the years of discussion and assume that anime are included, which means the answer is easy! Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I binged it in two days when I was a kid and it changed my life.

43. Do you have siblings? How many?

I have one brother, five years younger.

47. Have you memorized your phone number?

Ahahaha, no. Not because I can't, mind you. I just don't wanna.

[pixelgrotto]

Indy's Greatest Adventures

I rewatched all of the Indiana Jones movies lately, coincidentally just in time for the trailer of the new one, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. After I replayed Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis last year and realized that Indy was way more of a tomb raider than I remembered him to be, I was a little nervous about revisiting these films. I needn't have worried too much - wonky portrayal of India aside, the movies still hold up well. There are colonial overtones if you bother to analyze things with a 2022 mindset, sure, but the truck chase scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark still has to be one of the best sequences I've ever seen on film. The same goes for the mine carts in Temple of Doom and the tank scene in Last Crusade. Even Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which I tolerate more than most, has a few moments of pulpy goodness, nuclear fridges aside.

This brings me to Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures for the Super Nintendo, one of the few video games that decided to capture the magic of all of Dr. Jones' then-current films. I first saw a screenshot of it as a kid in Issue #9 of The Adventurer, a magazine that LucasArts put out to advertise their products, and I thought it looked neat as hell. A game full of levels inspired by all three Indy movies?! Genius! I never actually played it as a child, since I didn't have a SNES growing up, but the concept stuck with me. And so after I finished watching the films I decided to give Greatest Adventures a whirl, since it's easily accessible by emulation these days.

The game, published by LucasArts but developed by Factor 5 and JVC Musical Industries, runs on the same engine as JVC's three Super Star Wars titles. I haven't played those, but a quick look online shows that they're renowned for being hard as hell and featuring levels that take quite a few liberties from what was in the movies. (Remember how Luke had to go toe-to-toe against a Sarlacc pit monster in the beginning of A New Hope?)

Greatest Adventures doesn't stray quite as far from the source material, though the last boss of the game is a goofy skeleton version of Donovan after he drinks from the wrong Holy Grail. For the most part, though, you've got traditional platforming stages inspired by most of the major moments in each film, like Indy exploring the Well of Souls, beating up Thuggees in the tunnels beneath Pankot Palace, and facing the traps leading up to the resting place of the Holy Grail. Every now and then you'll get a level that expands upon something not really seen in the films - for instance, a snow section that shows Indy in Nepal trying to reach Marion's bar. Then there are what I like to call "gimmick" levels that present you with a key moment from the movies, like Indy running from a giant boulder at the beginning of Raiders or avoiding gunshots in a nightclub in Temple of Doom, and these break up the standard platforming by forcing you to run forward to survive or duck behind cover. Finally, there are three levels that take advantage of the SNES' fancy Mode 7 chip, placing you in a 3D perspective. Temple of Doom gets two of these, mimicking the life raft plane jump in the Himalayas and the mine cart chase. Last Crusade gets the final one, presenting the moment when Indy and his dad escaped a zeppelin via biplane and had to shoot down some Nazis.

It's all standard SNES platforming goodness, though the game is pretty darn hard. Indy controls well (though for some reason his whip is a far better weapon than his gun) but as the game ramps up you can expect to find a lot of inconveniently placed enemies (like birds, a la Ninja Gaiden) designed to trip up your jumps and bleed your health meter. The latter Last Crusade levels in particular start putting you up against Nazi mechanics and guys from the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword who can throw wrenches and knives in a perfect arc that always seems to hit you, and it's a fine recipe for frustration. There's also one level where you've got to swing from your whip between the windows of Castle Brunwald, and man is it kind of impossible.

I also wish there was more of an equal distribution of levels between the three movies, since Raiders gets 12 stages while Temple of Doom and Last Crusade only get 8. Also, I would've liked to see Indy's sidekicks present. Greatest Adventures depicts the story of each film as kind of a streamlined alternate take where Indy's alone all the time, and while Marion and Professor Jones Sr. show up in cutscenes (and notably the Game Over screen), others like Short Round and Willie Scott are nowhere to be seen. Willie, I guess I can do without, but not including Short Round is a crime, especially when they could've easily designed a Mode 7 chase scene with him driving a car as Indy escapes Shanghai.

These quibbles aside, playing Greatest Adventures with save states neutralizes a lot of the frustration, and for an Indy fan, there's much to like here - from the lovingly-recreated John Williams score to the occasional stage that really rewards fans of the movies. For instance, Raiders' infamous swordsman in black shows up at the end of the game's Cairo levels, and instead of proving to be a major boss encounter, all you've got to do is shoot him once to move on, just like in the film. There's also a Last Crusade boss battle aboard a tank where you can't use any other weapons but your fists to punch Colonel Ernst Vogel into submission, and you've got to do it before the tank rolls off a cliff, too. Good attention to film detail there!

The era of licensed video game tie-ins for films is more or less over, so I doubt we'll see anything in the form of electronic entertainment when Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny comes out. (Bethesda does have the Indy license and is supposed to deliver an original game that might coincide with the movie's release, but they've been silent on that front for a year, so we'll see what happens.) With this in mind, I do recommend giving Greatest Adventures a run-through if you've got a high tolerance for old-school platforming or at least want to relive Indy's glory days before the new movie releases. Along with Fate of Atlantis, it's probably the only 2D Indy game worth replaying by today's standards.

[novelmonger]

1, 7, 13, 14

Okay, you specified FMA or LotR, but I'm gonna do both because I can and because no one else is sending asks in.

The character everyone gets wrong

FMA - I think Hawkeye may be the one most likely for people to get wrong. If I had a nickel for every time I started reading a fanfic where Hawkeye is a trigger-happy lunatic that everyone in the office lives in fear of, and/or is a strict taskmaster who is perpetually annoyed with everyone, I'd be rich. She's a very complex and layered character, but so many people don't seem willing to look any deeper than the surface of a sequence that was played for laughs, and they make that her entire personality. Never mind all the examples we have of her being gentle, being someone children feel safe enough around to share their hopes and fears, getting emotional, relaxing and joking with friends, teetering on the razor's edge of suicide.... There are so many sides to her, and it's difficult to get her right, but it's also astonishing to me just how badly some people characterize her.

LotR - There are a few contenders, but...maybe Merry? Most of the blame can be laid to the movies, I think, but a lot of people seem to take him as "the more boring but less stupid Pippin." That does him such a disservice, because when you really pay attention to him (especially in the book), there's so much more going on than being part of a comic relief duo who eventually manages to kill a Nazgul. In actuality, he's debatably the most capable all-around of the four main hobbits, and he deserves much more recognition than he gets.

7. What character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because of how the fandom acts around them?

FMA - Hmm...you know, I'm not sure I hate any of the characters, really. Even the villains are at least interesting and well-developed, so I don't mind them as far as that goes. They serve the purpose they were made for. The character I come the closest to hating would probably be Kimbley, but that's entirely for what an awful person he is in canon. I will say I find certain prevalent descriptions of characters to be annoying because everyone uses them and they stopped being amusing twenty years ago. Like saying that Envy's hair makes him look like a palm tree. I've never liked that. But Envy is actually my favorite Homunculus in the manga/Brotherhood version, so....

LotR - The Show That Shall Not Be Named is almost enough to make me dislike Galadriel. Almost. Not quite. (And I haven't even watched said show!) Faux-Galadriel is a hateful abomination that I want to kick off a cliff, and any time a fan tries to defend her, I hate her that little bit more. Real Galadriel is super cool, though. I'm hoping that my current re-read of The Silmarillion and LotR will cement the real Galadriel in my mind again. This is what happens when you butcher a character and flaunt it like you're better than the person who created the character in the first place.

13. Worst blorbofication

FMA - I'm not entirely sure I understand the term "blorbofication," but I must confess I've never understood the obsession with Greed in the fandom. Like...yeah, it's a pretty cool concept for a villain and an interesting departure from the rest of the Homunculi because he's a rebel. But I don't personally find him that likeable; he creeps me out as much as the other Homunculi, and he's more unpredictable too because he's got his own agenda going on. I appreciate his help in the fight against Father, but I don't understand why he gets so much focus by certain circles of the fandom.

LotR - This is actually really hard, because all of the characters are so good, it's like...yeah, of course that's someone's blorbo. But if I have to pick one, I think I'm actually going to go with Legolas. Not because he's a bad or uninteresting character - by no means! But I think - partly because of the way he was handled in the movies, where he's little more than a pretty face who's good at shooting things - when fans latch onto Legolas as their blorbo, they forget a lot of details that make him so much more than that. Like how sassy he is. Or how just kind of...weird he can be, as an Elf in a party of beings who are much more down-to-earth.

14. The one thing you see in fics all the time

FMA - Ohhhh, there are so many dumb things to pick from ʘ‿ʘ I mean, there are good things (or at least things with the potential to be good) that crop up a lot too, like turning a character (usually Ed or Mustang) into a chimera and the rest of the characters having to deal with it. Or there are the things you see in fics from most fandoms, like self-inserts and "my super special OC tags along with the protagonists for some reason and basically nothing changes in the plot except that the protagonist falls in love with them." But one that's more specific to FMA is the fic where Ed randomly starts singing (sometimes with the accompaniment of a piano or maybe a guitar), even though there isn't the slightest indication in canon that he has any musical ability or interest whatsoever. It's usually very emo and angsty, and almost always features a Vic Mignogna song.

LotR - Confession time: I hardly ever read LotR fics. Mostly that's because no one can write as well as Tolkien, and whether the writer attempts to or not, it's often quite jarring when you compare it to the books. (I say this as someone who is currently attempting to write an LotR fic with the full knowledge that I will never reach that pinnacle of excellence. Generally, stories centered around hobbits don't stick out to me as much as ones about, say, Elves.) Anyway, I don't think I have enough data to really point to any trends. But one thing I'm pretty confident I can say, even without having read that many fics: Too many fics are focused on shipping.

Send me more spicy asks!

[maximuswolf]

Wondering if I drop Assassin's Creed brotherhood at sequence 7.

Wondering if I drop Assassin's Creed brotherhood at sequence 7. Rant:I've been seriously disappointed by this game and the missions maybe except machine gun but first part was annoying. Everyone keeps on saying that it is the best AC game of all time and a huge improvement to AC2 but where Is the improvement? Literally is just AC2.5 with same controls and missions structure and everything. I'm on sequnce 7 and I was enjoying this game until I found out you could get armour similair to the altair armour from AC2 but do those grueling tomb missions that made me rage quit.Also fuck the synchronisation objectives and stealth. Getting desynchronised when caught just pisses me off hugely and I'm already fustrated 90% of the time I'm even playing video games now that every game i've tried in my library annoys me but I bought them so I have to beat them, plus 'skill issue' pisses me off.AC revelations better fix this and actually fucking improve or I'll delete the ezio collection from my library. Submitted August 22, 2024 at 11:59AM by Pitiful-Beginning-70 https://ift.tt/PDmRgtz via /r/gaming

[summer-solo-day]

122/?? Childhood TV Shows You Should Watch

Title: Thundarr the Barbarian

Seasons: 2

Episodes: 21

Original Air Date: October 4, 1980 - October 31, 1981

Synopsis:

Thundarr the Barbarian is set in a future post-apocalyptic wasteland of Earth divided into kingdoms and territories, most of which are ruled by wizards. Another notable feature of this future Earth is that the Moon was broken into two pieces. The shattered moon and the ruins of the former human civilization were caused by the passage of a runaway planet between the Earth and the Moon in 1994, which, from scenes shown in the opening sequence, caused radical changes in the Earth's climate and geography. However, by the time the series is set, the Earth and Moon seem to have settled into a new physical balance. Earth is reborn with a world of "savagery, super-science, and sorcery" far more chaotic than "Old Earth".

The hero Thundarr, a muscular warrior, companions Princess Ariel, a formidable young sorceress, and Ookla the Mok, a mighty lion-like biped, travel the world on horseback, fighting injustice. Their main adversaries are evil wizards who combine magical spells with reanimating technologies from the pre-catastrophe world. Some of these malevolent wizards enlist the service of certain mutant species to do their bidding.

Other enemies include The Brotherhood of Night (a group of werewolves who could transform others into werewolves by their touch), the cosmic Stalker from The Stars (a predatory, malevolent cosmic vampire), and various other mutants. Intelligent humanoid-animal races include the rat-like Groundlings, the crocodile-like Carocs, and talking hawk- and pig-like mutants. New animals that existed include fire-shooting whales, a giant green snake with a grizzly bear's head, and mutated dragonflies and rabbits.

My Rating: 7/10

I definitely remember this cartoon. It is not one of my favorites but it's not bad either. It's certainly above average to me. I think I never really could relate to the characters and so I couldn't really connect with them. Which, isn't always needed so don't get me wrong. You can totally enjoy a show without relating to the characters though.

Overall, I think this is a good show though and the plots are interesting enough and the characters are decent. I think you would like it.

[bookoformon]

Alma Chapter 43, Part 1. "Unto Bloodshed."

Alma and his sons preach the word—The Zoramites and other Nephite dissenters become Lamanites—The Lamanites come against the Nephites in war—Moroni arms the Nephites with defensive armor—The Lord reveals to Alma the strategy of the Lamanites—The Nephites defend their homes, liberties, families, and religion—The armies of Moroni and Lehi surround the Lamanites. About 74 B.C. "Insolence" continues.

There is open rebellion against the New Commandments Alma gives the people. The Zoramites, who showed some potential become Lamanites, as they are unwilling to embrace the truth their paper words are woefully inaccurate. Woefully!

Moroni = Moron + i.

A Moron is "almost enlightened but not quite" and i means "responds to supplication" in Hebrew.

The Nephites are in trouble. so God sends a partially enlightening spirit to help them survive the doubly reinforced Lamanites "dullnesses."

1 And now it came to pass that the sons of Alma did go forth among the people, to declare the word unto them. And Alma, also, himself, could not rest, and he also went forth.

2 Now we shall say no more concerning their preaching, except that they preached the word, and the truth, according to the spirit of prophecy and revelation; and they preached after the holy order of God by which they were called.

3 And now I return to an account of the wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites, in the eighteenth year of the reign of the judges.= the Temporal Plates.

4 For behold, it came to pass that the Zoramites became Lamanites; therefore, in the commencement of the eighteenth year the people of the Nephites saw that the Lamanites were coming upon them; therefore they made preparations for war; yea, they gathered together their armies in the land of Jershon.

The 18th Year concludes a sequence that started with the 16th.

16= the mini refuge of peace

17= therefore

18=transitioned

War, in Judaism is an analytical discussion, so this means the confrontation between the Nephites and the Lamanites over the New Commandments will produce substantive arguments as to why they are appropriate.

5 And it came to pass that the Lamanites came with their thousands; and they came into the land of Antionum, which is the land of the Zoramites; and a man by the name of Zerahemnah was their leader.

Thousands of Lamanites are 3043, גאֶפֶסדג, gapesdag, "an abhorrent overabundance".

Antionum=exchanging the Pillar of the Sun of the people

Zerahemnah= "Rising support of the brotherhood."

=Idolatry during a time of intense apostasty. This guy Zerahemna is the sun rising in the wrong window and he is breeding more Lamanites to take to war.

6 And now, as the Amalekites were of a more wicked and murderous disposition than the Lamanites were, in and of themselves, therefore, Zerahemnah appointed chief captains over the Lamanites, and they were all Amalekites and Zoramites.

Amelakites are gossipers, evil chatty Nancy Cathies so it makes their leader put them in charge of the side of the army of the apostates. Captains, on the other hand, are according to the Torah supposed to lead the charge out of Egypt, not rally support for it:

"And it was on that very day that all the hosts of G‑d [in Hebrew, "tzivot Havaya"] - left the land of Egypt." (Ex 12:41). The following verse explains:

7 Now this he did that he might preserve their hatred towards the Nephites, that he might bring them into subjection to the accomplishment of his designs.

8 For behold, his designs were to stir up the Lamanites to anger against the Nephites; this he did that he might usurp great power over them, and also that he might gain power over the Nephites by bringing them into bondage.

9 And now the design of the Nephites was to support their lands, and their houses, and their wives, and their children, that they might preserve them from the hands of their enemies; and also that they might preserve their rights and their privileges, yea, and also their liberty, that they might worship God according to their desires.

10 For they knew that if they should fall into the hands of the Lamanites, that whosoever should worship God in spirit and in truth, the true and the living God, the Lamanites would destroy.

11 Yea, and they also knew the extreme hatred of the Lamanites towards their brethren, who were the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi, who were called the people of Ammon—and they would not take up arms, yea, they had entered into a covenant and they would not break it—therefore, if they should fall into the hands of the Lamanites they would be destroyed.

Recall the Anti-Nephi-Lehi who traded up to the belief that minting or use of weapons was not of God.

12 And the Nephites would not suffer that they should be destroyed; therefore they gave them lands for their inheritance.

13 And the people of Ammon "disciples" did give unto the Nephites a large portion of their substance to support their armies; and thus the Nephites were compelled, alone, to withstand against the Lamanites, who were a compound of Laman and Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael, and all those who had dissented from the Nephites, who were Amalekites and Zoramites, and the descendants of the priests of Noah.

14 Now those descendants were as numerous, nearly, as were the Nephites; and thus the Nephites were obliged to contend with their brethren, even unto bloodshed.

The compound of Laman and Lemuel= the dreams of insanity produced when Ishmaelites, who hear, respond and obey to gossip and heresy as a result of once upon a time listening to an evil King Noah who taught violence towards the prophets instead of obeisance was how things were done.

Bloodshed is the loss of time and happiness caused when noble persons have to once again deal with the bullshit of ultra-religious people whose desecendants were lost in time.

We do this in America every day, we have been doing it for centuries, this constant struggling between the slavers, the religious folks and our modern system of reforms and civil rights. Who knows when it is going to stop. Try as some of us might, the fighting never seems to lose its appeal.

Even still, we are going to add "do not mint or use weapons" to the list of Commandments found on the Plates.

[starlightrealmofficial]

Mob Psycho 100 III- Episode 6 Review

Intro:

Hello ladies, gentlemen and all those inbetween from all across the multiverse! My name is Rouga and today I bring you another installment of the Mob Psycho 100 III reviews What I hear to be the climax of this arc. A good buddy of mine told me this one gets quite sad so let's gear up with our comfort foods at the ready and see what episode 6 has in store for us.

Episode Review:

Starting off right where we left off after a brief mashup of flashbacks with some new and redrawn shots with the shirt-based comments we are greeted by Dimple, still in his Academy Awards cosplay monologuing about the garish shirt Then we go into the deep stuff with Mob releasing the rest of his powers so that they do not get in the way of his talk with his red-cheeked friend. Dimple is utterly flabbergasted by this and frankly so am I. that said, for Shigeo who said he does not acknowledge Dimple as a god, refusing to fight with him is probably the best way to do just that. I honestly didn't really notice the parallels between Shigeo and Dimple till this episode laid them out before me but now they feel clear as day, in their own ways each wants to be acknowledged. and that makes them similar. Dimple's desire for a friend also reminds me of Envy from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and FMAB memories are always good. Dimple abandoning his scheme only for Mob to ask if it's really ok with him when Mob was the one to convince him was quintessential Mob Psycho and I am all here for it. I was honestly expecting this whole episode to be this slow and wholesome thing. The appearance of an autonomous Psycho Helmet wasn't something I thought of at all. Quite a neat surprise that gives us some more time to see what Golden Dimple is capable of. The action sequence has some really nice effects and animation, and giant brocco-mob is a pretty neat idea. The sequences are somewhat Naruto-Esque to me given the jumping Brocco-mobs on the broccoli "branches" and the string of them holding Dimple down, reminiscent of one of Naruto's attacks from the video games. Overall this is a really really REALLY well-made action sequence. showing off a lot of cool stuff while putting the God in a hopeless situation. playing up the urgency of the matter at hand. Even more so, the sacrifice of Dimple to destroy Psycho Helmet and save Shigeo was a heartfelt, difficult moment. especially because Mob is not aware of what exactly happened but he knows the gist and seeing him actually show emotion outside of being at 100% is something that speaks volumes about just how sad the loss of his friend is to our boy. I hope it isn't forgotten going forward with the story. With that. This will be all for the review and the Divine Tree arc as a whole. A really great emotional addition to the story of Mob Psycho and one I will not easily forget. . I hope to see you all in the next one when Episode 7 drops. I have been Rouga, and thank you for reading!

[foxstens]

finished revelations 💀

i spent nearly 40 hours on it and yet my one thought during the credits was that it was too short - because it barely has any optional content and no ‘filler’ and also not much of what i expected it to have.

negatives 

1. can’t dye ezio’s clothes very black - makes sense bc of the colour scheme but still

2. no side missions, no assassination contracts no letter deliveries or beat up events or anything interesting

3. 22 viewpoints and the viewpoint music is different

4. no collectibles i actually care about

5. the best sword is unlocked so late i never got to use it

6. the secondary weapon slot and all the different bombs aren’t as useful as they should be

7. no sight of the characters we know and love from the previous ezio games

8. feels more like a conclusion to altair’s story than ezio’s :/

9. barely any parkour, 2 hidden tombs and like one chase sequence what the fuck

10. annoying slomo when you kill an enemy with a special attack or whatever its called

11. lag and glitches - not as bad as in brotherhood but still pretty frequent and sometimes game-breaking

12. the modern storyline fucking sucks and i hate it

mixed

1. the music - i love the vibe of the music but i can’t say any of the tracks stand out

2. 30 crossbow bolts that i barely ever used bc it no longer one-shots the guards i have most trouble with

3. ziplining is cool but why use it when i can just jump or walk

4. i didnt end up feeling a lot during the entire game

5. the templar dens are cool but waaaaay too easy even at the very beginning of the game

6. janissaries are amazing enemy design but you never actually /have/ to fight them

7. no horses - thankfully i never need to ride a horse in the city like in rome but there’s also just one tiny spot that’s an open field, and those tend to be my favourite places

8. not very intense - makes sense and it’d probably be weird if it wasn’t the case, but there were only 2 missions that i actually found intense

positives

1. the plot, the writing, and ezio - might be my favourite in the ezio trilogy, absolutely incredible

2. atmosphere - the colour scheme, the music, the people, everything is so chill and constantinople is a joy to explore

3. master assassin missions and the recruits in general they’re all wonderful and i love them

4. getting to play as altair at different ages is really cool

5. all the new characters are interesting and loveable, and more mature

6. the main story missions might be my favourites in the trilogy oh my fucking god they’re so good

7. templar awareness, templar stalkers, random templars around is a great system and i like it more than notoriety

8. ezio’s movements feel a lil bit different at times since he’s older and i really appreciate that attention to detail

9. loooooooooooots of cutscenes and they’re all great

10. you can actually travel on the roofs, though i rarely did so bc i just liked walking

overall idk. it’s a good game definitely and it does lots of things well but it’s not exactly what i wanted it to be, and i don’t feel like i’m done with ezio or the characters from the previous 2 games

[tr4nsvampyr]

Thinking very very hard about the sequence of events that lead to the glomp of 305AC and why it’s so crazy to me that that actually happened for real and in the world they wrote and shot that edited it and oh my god

First in season 7 due to their responsibilities they are separated after spending at least a year with each other at castle black and then winterfell. Jon is all the way across the country and they spend at least a few weeks apart. Then Jon jumps at the opportunity to go north of the wall, partly in an attempt to show Cersei that the white walkers are real, partly to escape Daenerys literally holding him prisoner on dragonstone, and call me biased but partly because he knows who exactly is at Eastwatch right now.

As soon as they are reunited they’re inseparable again. Honourable mention for the tender, “you really want to go out there? Again?”. They spend the whole day north of the wall walking side by side talking to each other. They stand so close that they bump into each other. When Jon is thrown into the ice lake and they are forced to leave without him obviously the focus of each scene is now on Daenerys and her reaction to this, but tormund thinks Jon is dead. HOURS pass and a nearly-dead Jon returns to eastwatch and tormund doesn’t even get to see him before he’s taken back south against his will. they didn’t get to say goodbye and they almost lost each other for good again.

Jon is informed about the destruction of the wall and has to assume tormund was killed. All the while tormund and the brotherhood are on their way to winterfell (TO JON‼️‼️) to fight with him. When they arrive, Jon isn’t looking for tormund because he thinks he’s dead (ow)

He sees edd and makes a beeline towards him but suddenly a cloud of red hair and grey pelts flies at him and tormund is GLOMPING HIM SO HARD THE SCORE STOPS. Tormund has been waiting so long and doing everything he can to get back to Jon that when he sees him, he sprints up and throws his entire weight at Jon in an embrace, in front of everyone. And he says, “MY LITTLE CROW!!” Laughing with pure excess joy. After months of other people taking Jon away from him he can finally hold him and claim him as HIS for all to see. They hold onto each other and stare into each other’s eyes, shaking each other gently as if they’re not sure the other is real. Their faces are so close when Jon says in a mix of joy and grief, “I thought we’d lost you.” Tormund simply acknowledges how close they came to losing each other, shaken up by the destruction of the wall, he nods and says, “almost” while giving jon one last shake.

I mean what the fuck . WHAT THE FUUUUUUCK

[robininthelabyrinth]

Spilled Pearls

- Chapter 7 - ao3 -

Lan Qiren woke up with a pounding headache and no memory of having gone to bed.

This would not have been a surprise had he been at home, as his routine was blissfully static and required no thought whatsoever – each item he needed in its proper place, each movement mapped out through years of practice, his entire body trained such that he would automatically begin to go through the necessary acts at the appropriate time and would immediately begin to feel sleepy once he started the sequence – but it was highly notable that such a thing would occur while he was out of the Cloud Recesses, where each day’s sleep would only be the same in terms of the time at which he fell asleep.

In this case in particular, he also felt sore all over – his head, as mentioned, but also his upper arms and, oddly, his right knee. Had he been exercising unwisely? The bed in the room he had been given at the Sun Palace was not that nice, too hard and unyielding, but it wasn’t enough to cause this sort of aching…

“I will see to it that the next bed lives up to your stringent standards.”

Lan Qiren’s eyes shot open and he sat upright at once: that was Wen Ruohan’s voice.

“What are you doing in my –” he started to say, then stopped.

Wen Ruohan was not in his bedroom.

He wasn’t in his bedroom.

He didn’t even recognize this bedroom.

It was massive, for one thing: a full suite, the way the hanshi was back at home, with place for a bed and a table and plenty more besides. The bed was similar in style to the one in the room he had been assigned but larger in scale – made of dark wood and covered in the red sun motif like all the other décor, but over twice as broad and an extra chi in length, and the brocade fabric used to upholster it was considerably more lush and luxurious and, admittedly, more comfortable than what he’d been sleeping on in the Sun Palace’s guest quarters. The room itself was the same, decorated in luxury extending to the point of opulence: there was a painting scroll on one wall that if genuine would be worth more than everything Lan Qiren owned put together, young master of a Great Sect or not, and on the other wall hung six swords, each more glorious than the next, and he suspected if he knew more about weaponry he would be able to recite their names.  Even the red sun that was painted on every ceiling here glittered with embedded rubies and spiritual stones, emanating pure qi – a tremendous waste, each one of them sufficient to be a cultivation sect’s precious treasure.

Amidst all this luxury, Wen Ruohan was sitting not far away from the bed, a book held loosely in his hands – it was as if he’d been waiting for Lan Qiren to awaken.

“I think you’ll find, in fact,” Wen Ruohan said, and his eyes were glittering the way they had been the day before when it had been Lao Nie he’d been looking at, full of malice and self-indulgent amusement, “that this is my bedroom.”

This was not a surprise, but rather the only logical conclusion.

Not that it explained why Lan Qiren was here.

“Did I – fall asleep?” he asked uncertainly, though surely that must be the reason. “And you – brought me here?”

“You did, and I did,” Wen Ruohan confirmed, and seemed amused for some reason. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

Lan Qiren wracked his brain, which was hurting and unhelpful and slower even than its usual plodding pace. “…I was thinking that liquor tastes vile.”

Wen Ruohan’s smile broadened. “Mm. It seems that you inherited your grandfather’s head for wine.”

Lan Qiren’s grandfather was one of the elders who refused to obey the rule against alcohol. He had also, in his later years, developed a most un-Lan-like fondness for wine.

He had not at any point developed a tolerance for it.

Lan Qiren closed his eyes in a wince. He must have made a complete fool of himself!

“This foolish junior apologizes to the Sect Leader for his misbehavior,” he said. He wanted to lift his hands to salute, but the movement, when he started it, set off his stomach, and he was forced to wrap his arms around his midsection instead.

There was a rustling sound, robes moving as Wen Ruohan rose to his feet, but Lan Qiren kept his eyes stubbornly closed, fearing that any further input would cause him to bring up everything he’d consumed the night before – only to open them in shock a moment later when he felt a finger press against the acupoint between his eyes, a warm stream of spiritual energy pouring in to cleanse away the nausea and pain of his headache.

Of his hangover.

He had a hangover.

Wen Ruohan, the mighty Sect Leader Wen, was providing him with medical attention to deal with his hangover.

There weren’t going to be words for how much he was going to get punished when he got home.

“Thank you, Sect Leader Wen,” Lan Qiren croaked, feeling hot all over with unending mortification. He had truly been foolish to think that just because there was only one night left in the Nightless City there was little danger of him repeating the mistakes of the past – he had no face left to speak of.

“Oh, no need to be so formal,” Wen Ruohan said, drawing out the words in a drawl. “Not after such a memorable night.”

Lan Qiren did not want to know what he did to make the night get described as memorable. He did not.

Especially not since Wen Ruohan was so obviously enjoying himself over it.

Of course, he wasn’t an idiot: he might be slow and bad at social cues, might find it difficult to understand the unspoken or keep up with sarcasm, but even he knew what was being implied here.

An older man with a younger one, liquor shared, a bedroom…

Yes, he understood the implication.

He just wasn’t stupid enough to believe it.

Lan Qiren folded his hands together and held his head up high.

“It is good that the Sect Leader did not take insult at my foolishness,” he said stiffly. “I thank you for your care and attention, and regret the burden I placed upon you.”

If anything, Wen Ruohan looked even more amused. “Such dignity, little Lan. You’re not even going to ask what happened?”

“This junior is only sixteen,” Lan Qiren said, still stiff and icy. “There is nothing that could have taken place without Sect Leader Wen’s approval, and naturally Sect Leader Wen would not permit this junior to offend his dignity.”

There, he thought with some satisfaction. That neatly turned the situation around: even if something untoward had occurred, which honestly Lan Qiren did not believe past that first initial moment of panic – even putting aside the fact that he wasn't anywhere near sore enough for something like that to have occurred, Wen Ruohan was not known to succumb easily to lust, nor was he so eager for war that he would recklessly try to deflower the son of another Great Sect while the latter was intoxicated for the first time – the blame would fall squarely on Wen Ruohan’s head, not Lan Qiren’s.

Wen Ruohan laughed, understanding perfectly well what Lan Qiren meant.

“You would think so,” he said, sounding almost approving of Lan Qiren’s rule lawyering. “I would have thought so, too, but I find that you Lan have truly remarkable arm strength…especially when trying to keep your conversational partner from escaping while you explain the difference between what the Lan sect consider to be fundamental rules and those considered ancillary.”

Lan Qiren blanched.

That was worse than what he’d thought – because unlike the notion of him making unwanted advances (or receiving them, for that matter), it was plausible. Terribly, painfully plausible.

“Oh, yes. All five iterations of the debate.”

Oh no.

“Four sect discussions. Seventeen separate texts on the subject, not counting later commentaries. Sixty-four subsidiary rulings, all of which you were very enthusiastic in recounting - and here I was thinking that your Wall of Discipline had a surfeit of rules, when in fact it was only the beginning. Apparently, I underestimated you.”

Lan Qiren buried his face in his hands as if that would make it stop. 

“Still, I suppose I’ll have to accustom myself to hearing more about the rules in the future,” Wen Ruohan mused. “We’ll be spending far more time together, after all, on account of our sworn brotherhood.”

Lan Qiren looked up and opened his mouth, then stopped.

He had nothing to say.

His mind was absolutely blank, a state which had never before occurred.

“Forgive me,” he finally spat out. “Our – what?”

Wen Ruohan smiled at him with eyes full of poison and a mouth full of teeth.

“Sworn brotherhood,” he said casually, as if it was nothing. “You were saying that you regretted not being able to see more of the Nightless City before you left, and that you could only leave the Cloud Recesses to visit family, so we became sworn brothers.”

“We did not.”

“Oh, but we did,” Wen Ruohan said. “We drank mixed wine and swore all the appropriate oaths – I have the written version here, if you’d like to see.”

The piece of paper he put in front of Lan Qiren was recognizably in Lan Qiren’s own hand, although his normally impeccable calligraphy was rather wobbly. It was still readable, though, and the first few clauses very clearly laid out a sworn brotherhood oath.

Lan Qiren stared at it.

“We – but we can’t be sworn brothers,” he said blankly. “We’re – you’re two generations older than me. Am I supposed to call you da-ge?”

“No one has called me da-ge since my youngest brother died,” Wen Ruohan mused, and Lan Qiren was abruptly reminded of the rumors, never confirmed, that that particular death had come at Wen Ruohan’s own hands following a challenge for the seat of sect leader. “It’ll be very charming, I’m sure.”

“But…”

Wen Ruohan said nothing, but only smiled at him.

Lan Qiren looked down at the paper.

He didn’t understand what was happening.

He tried to go over it again in his mind: he had left the competition when the celebration had started, he had wandered the halls, he had tried to obey his brother’s instructions in avoiding Wen Ruohan, and when that failed, he had obeyed him in trying to be obedient. He had drunk liquor for the first time, and he had no memory thereafter until he had woken up here and now, in Wen Ruohan’s bedroom, with Wen Ruohan saying that they had –

He didn’t think Wen Ruohan was teasing him over this, though. Not the way he had so obviously been with his implications that they had used the bedroom for purposes other than sleeping.

Not with evidence, written in his own hand.

He didn’t understand.

How could this have happened?

“…did we really?” he whispered, half-hoping against hope that it was still a tease, still a joke, still – something, anything, other than what it was. That Wen Ruohan was just waiting for him to declare that he believed him, to demonstrate dismay, and then he would tell him the truth.

“Yes,” Wen Ruohan said instead, inexorable. “We did.”

Lan Qiren’s mind fell into chaos.

He didn’t understand.

He didn’t understand.

“You’re shaking,” Wen Ruohan observed. “Ah, little Lan – don’t tell me it’s now that you’re scared?”

Lan Qiren’s hands were in fact shaking, he observed, and he put them over his face.

“Why would you do that?” he asked, his whole body starting to rock back and forth in his distress. “Why would you – with me – an oath of brotherhood can’t be taken lightly –”

“It can’t be,” Wen Ruohan said, and for some reason he sounded satisfied. “Certainly not for someone like you, little Lan, who always keeps their word and does not lie.”

“But why?” Lan Qiren asked, his voice rising almost into a plaintive wail. “Our sects aren’t even allies.”

“They are now,” Wen Ruohan said, and put his hand on the back of Lan Qiren’s neck. It felt hot against his skin, like a hot stone used for massage – a little too hot to tolerate for very long. “You know the obligations of a sworn brother oath as well as I. My duty as the elder brother is to guide you and care for you, support you and yours, and in return you are to obey me and be guided by me.”

Did Wen Ruohan want a spy in the Lan sect? Lan Qiren wondered wildly. But surely there were easier ways than this – not only would he make a terrible spy, with his clumsiness and his terrible social skills and his inability not to take everything seriously, but it would be simple enough for his sect to counter such a move. All they would need to do would be to cast him out…

His rocking intensified.

Wen Ruohan brought his other arm around him and pulled him close until Lan Qiren’s forehead, with its forehead ribbon still firmly in place, was pressed against his chest.

“Don’t cry, little brother,” he crooned. “Am I to allow a priceless painting to be kept by those that see it only for its use as spare kindling? A peerless treasure sword left to prop up a door?”

“You have a half-dozen swords hanging on your wall, each more priceless than the next, and all of them rusting away for lack of use!” Lan Qiren cried out. “Even if it’s only a door, at least it’s – it’s my – my brother…”

“Do not worry about your brother, undeserving as he is of your sincerity. Qingheng-jun has been trying to get concessions out of me this entire conference,” Wen Ruohan said. His breath was warm against Lan Qiren’s hair. “I’ve been refusing, but now I’ll grant them. He won’t punish you.”

“That’s not how that works. Punishment isn’t inherently bad; it’s meant to correct and guide the individual – the failure of good conduct will always be my own, no matter the result –”

“What I have taken into my hand, no one yet lives who would dare seek to take away,” Wen Ruohan said. “Anyway, it’s too late to regret now, isn’t it? What’s done is done. Don’t you have a rule like that?”

Lan Qiren sniffed. “No. There are at least four that could potentially qualify as having similar underlying meanings, but none directly on point.”

Wen Ruohan huffed. “Little Lan, if I tore out your heart, would you have time to cite one of your sect rules before you died?”

“…maybe if it was a short one?” Lan Qiren said, blinking at the strange question; his lashes brushed against Wen Ruohan’s lapel. “I mean, there’s a difference between ‘Be loyal and filial’ and ‘Set the wise as your teacher and the moral as your example’, isn’t there? And of course you’d have to consider whether in tearing out the heart you impeded the lungs, and how much time it would take the exsanguination to take effect…”

He was calming down, he realized, and pulled back out of Wen Ruohan’s arms, blushing as he realized that the question must have been meant as a distraction, though how Wen Ruohan had realized that a distraction would be the best way to reduce his distress when even he hadn’t known, he had no idea.

“Thank you for your consideration,” he mumbled, ducking his head in embarrassment.

Wen Ruohan started laughing.  

“Truly I have found an unappreciated treasure, unlike any other,” he said amid his chuckles. “Come along, little Lan. Let’s go break the news to your brother.”

[telemna-hyelle]

Who's your favorite of the 7 sins? (FMA, FMAB)

Greed, probably! Gotta love a redemption arc. Outside of Greed... probably Envy. Great character, though also easy to hate, but... I always end up crying at that last scene. There's something so pitiful and pitiable about that whole sequence. Makes me feel a lot.

(i've only watched Brotherhood all the way through)

[amethyst-geek]

Musical moments I’d want to put in an ML reboot

In addition to possible musical moments I’ve already proposed for a hypothetical ML reboot (the heroes distracting the villain with an over the top rendition of Greatest Show and the Couffaine siblings figuring out each other’s identities after 1 of them hears the other sings sea shanty their mom sang to them) here are some other ideas for musical moments. Note that these moments are not in chronological order-

1. The following sequence prior to the various members of Kitty Section making their hero debuts- Ladybug and Chat Noir are fighting the villain of the week the fight somehow winds up being near the Liberty while Kitty Section is rehearsing (or Kitty Section somehow wound up stuck on rooftop where the fight is taking place). Kitty Section tries to intervene, and the Ladybug insists that they stay out and that she and Chat have things under control. Rose then asks “Can we at least provide musical accompanment?” Ladybug and Chat are all “sure go for it.” They then do a cover of a song from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (or an original song depending on what the lawyers allow) As for which FMA:B song they cover, I’m towards Shunkan Sentimental (the 4th closing theme) 

2. Guitar Villain and Frightningale having villain songs in their respective episodes as well as during the Heroes Day battle. Speaking of the Frightningale episode, I’d also like to include a full version of Clara’s music video and not the last 30 seconds of it. Not only that, but I’d also want to have the heroes actually sing after getting whipped by her and not just dancing and rhyming. And since they’re being put on the spot, I imagine they’d be doing cover songs as coming up with an original song on the spot can be hard.

3. a super-villain somehow making past akuma victims confront their akuma selves (either as hallucinations or physical clones) and the akuma duplicates singing about how they’ll always be the part of them. 

4. really, more villain songs in general

5. a music meister-type villain compelling people to sing about what’s on their minds and/or doing their bidding while singing. If it’s just the former where simply compel people to sing without making them their slaves, then I’d want to start the episode with Marinette (or possibly Fu) and the Kwamis doing an homage to Whistle While You Work from Snow White then ending the song with being confused.

6. a version that song Adrien and Mari sometimes dance to, but with actual lyrics (perhaps provided by Jagged Stone; I’m choosing to believe it’s that song Mari and Luka and talking about in Truth that apparently goes “under the moonlight by the sea...”) 

7. more songs from Jagged Stone and Kitty Section

8. the class seeing a Broadway musical about Ladybug and Chat Noir during an adaptation of the NY special 

9. the class having a Karaoke party 

10. a flashback of Gabriel and Emilie jamming out to a grunge band, with the context of the flashback coming up being that Chat Noir is singing this song after getting whipped by Frightningale because the lyrics contain the word cataclysm 

11. some of the characters auditioning and/or participating in a local musical production

12. Luka singing (I am not super picky about the context)

Edit: realized I forgot to finish writing the last sentence in item 2, so I added what I had initially forgotten to write. 

[westerosiladies]

Arya Stark Fancast Resource

So I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve been having a hard time finding age-appropriate actors in period costumes when trying to create any content that doesn’t feature the actors from the show (not that I don’t love them all, just sometimes a change of pace is nice). That’s particularly true for characters whose book and show counterparts are significantly different in age. I thought I’d start putting together some resources for fancasts that are reasonably accurate to book descriptions, particularly after I saw the incredible Sansa Stark resource put together by BookSansaDaily.

So yeah, let’s start with Arya:

“Nine years old at the start of A Game of Thrones, Arya's appearance is more Stark than Tully, with a long face, grey eyes, and brown hair. She is skinny and athletic. She is generally regarded as plain, as exemplified by a nickname “Arya Horseface”, and is often mistaken for a boy.” (x)

RAFFEY CASSIDY - YOUNG SNOW WHITE (SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN)

Raffey Cassidy was roughly 9 years old when filming Snow White and the Huntsman. The costume design is appropriately medieval, and I've found it a particularly good resource because of the number of clips where Raffey looks disheveled and/or tomboyish. Best for AGOT and pre-ASOIAF content.

ANNA MAGUIRE - YOUNG DANIELLE (EVER AFTER: A CINDERELLA STORY)

I can’t find an accurate birthday for Anna Maguire, but given that she played a 9-year-old character two years after this film, I feel confident placing her at 7-10 during the filming of Ever After. The film is set in the Renaissance rather than the Middle Ages, but Danielle’s clothes are still reasonably appropriate. As with Snow White and the Huntsman, this is a good resource for both AGOT and pre-ASOIAF content, especially since it contains footage of Anna Maguire looking both put together and covered in mud. She’s not as long-faced as Arya should be, but she’s got the appropriate mischievous energy.

IVANA BAQUERO - OFELIA (PAN’S LABYRINTH)

Pan’s Labyrinth is set in the 1940s, well outside appropriate ASOIAF timeframes, so Ivana Baquero is best used for stills and closeups. However, the scene in which she faces the toad (pictures 1 and 4 here) has her filthy and in reasonably time-neutral underclothes, so I’ve found it useful before for the period when Arya’s on the run with the Night’s Watch or the Brotherhood. Ivana was 11 when filming, so that puts her at a more appropriate age for later novels.

ANUK STEFFAN - HEIDI (HEIDI)

Again, not a period-appropriate film, but Heidi does spend a significant amount of it running around in an undershirt, so that’s useful for taking it out of time a bit. Anuk Steffan was 10 when filming, and this movie has the added benefit of portraying her with both long and short hair, which makes it particularly ideal for content portraying both Arya Stark and Arry the Orphan. She even occasionally runs around in boys’ clothing, albeit 19th century boys’ clothing.

A FEW OTHERS

1. ARABELLA MORTON - GAEL (THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER): Arabella was 10 when filming the third Narnia movie. She doesn’t have a ton of footage, but there’s some material between her and her onscreen father that’s potentially useful for Arya and Ned, and she’s got a mischievous spirit that feels very Arya to me.

2. UNKNOWN ACTOR - YOUNG SOPHIA/ZOE (SOPHIA): I’m not sure who this actor is (if you know, please tell me!) but she plays Young Sophia/Zoe in the Russian series Sophia. Based on her height, she’s significantly older than Arya, and she only appears in one sequence, which can be found here. However, I think her face is uncommonly perfect for Arya, so I’ve used her both for gifs and for stills.

3. HARRY STOTT - LUPUS (ROMAN MYSTERIES): Harry Stott was 11-12 when filming the TV series Roman Mysteries. He’s a useful resource when fancasting Arya in disguise as Arry, particularly in the Season 2 episode titled “The Fugitive from Corinth,” where he wears the brown traveling cloak you can sort of see in the picture above.

4. TOM TAYLOR - YOUNG UHTRED (THE LAST KINGDOM): Another good Arry fancast. Tom Taylor was 13ish when filming the first season of The Last Kingdom, which has particularly good cold weather, fur-based fashion. Heads up that the character of Young Uhtred was recast for later seasons, and the other kid looks much less like Arya.

Anyway, I hope this is useful, and feel free to add any additional actors you like to cast as Arya! I’m planning to make several of these for different characters; the full set can be found here once I’ve made more.